As the left continues to advocate for further restrictions on the Second Amendment, others are using it to save their lives.

This past Wednesday a young 12-year old girl in Bryan County, Oklahoma was able to protect her life when an intruder kicked in her back door and entered her house. Frantically, she called her mother who advised her to grab their household gun, hide in the closet, and call 911.

The intruder made his way through the house, and as he was opening the door of the closet, the young girl shot him through the closet door. The intruder left the house and the girl was found unharmed. The police arrived and took the man into custody.

What would have happened had the girl not been armed? We can’t be sure, but there are far too many stories of young girls being kidnapped, murdered, and raped.

The news is full of crimes and events that could have been prevented—or at least decreased the amount of damage—had there been less gun restrictions. One of the most recent examples is the Aurora, Colorado shooting that occurred back in July.

A masked gunman opened fire at one of the midnight showings of The Dark Knight Rises, leaving 12 dead and 50 injured. One person opened fire, but not one person was armed to protect themselves or others. Aurora citizens are allowed to obtain concealed carry permits, but aren’t allowed to use their weapons. It would have been illegal for anyone to fire his or her weapon in the theatre. The theatre also had a ban on any and all weapons.

I can only imagine if second amendment rights were upheld and protected in Aurora, maybe more people would have been saved. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

In areas where Second Amendment rights are respected, many lives have been saved in similar instances. About a week before the Aurora shooting, 71-year old Samuel Williams—a concealed gun carrier—opened fire on two intruders in an internet café in Marion County, Florida. One of the intruders was armed with a gun, the other with a baseball bat. Both intruders suffered only minor injuries and were taken into custody.

Luckily, the young 12-year old girl was also able to save herself.

The Left loves to use these instances to lobby for stricter gun laws. Mayor Bloomberg, among many others, advocated for stricter gun laws following the Aurora incident. And, in Tuesday’s presidential debate, President Obama advocated for stricter gun laws:

“What I’m trying to do is to get a broader conversation about how do we reduce the violence generally. Part of it is seeing if we can get an assault weapons ban reintroduced. But part of it is also looking at other sources of the violence. Because frankly, in my hometown of Chicago, there’s an awful lot of violence and they’re not using AK-47s. They’re using cheap handguns.”

President Obama tried to make an argument for more restrictions on the Second Amendment, but Chicago has some of the strictest gun laws, and that hasn’t decreased violence.

We will never understand why people go out of their way to harm others, but we have a constitutional right to defend ourselves. We must stand by the Constitution and remember this: guns don’t kill people. People must make the decision to kill others. If I were to ever be in a similar situation as the 12-year old Oklahoma girl, I wouldn’t want to be found empty handed.